The Border Collies

Jack

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Disclosures

Unless specifically stated otherwise in the individual post, beginning Nov. 1, 2009, every book read and "reviewed" on Books 'N Border Collies was purchased for my private collection or came from the public library system.

I am an Amazon Associate and some of the links in posts do lead to Amazon.

NOTICE: (Updated March 5, 2010)

Beginning December 19, 2009, Books 'N Border Collies will be posting but only intermittently while I pursue personal goals. I plan to share some reading I'm doing, but there will be no reviews. I will, however, be sharing my exploration of vegetarian cooking and the cookbooks and websites I use to educate myself. I hope you enjoy it!

Lezlie

Friday, February 6, 2009

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE

There is a saying my friends and I use when one of us is being hopelessly self-centered -- "Enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think of me?" The main character of this novel, Amory Blaine, reminded me a lot of that quote. Actually, most of the characters in this novel reminded me of that quote. Despite the self-absorption, I liked listening to the book. Fitzgerald paints such a vivid portrait of the Roaring Twenties that it's almost like watching a movie. I nearly forgot I was listening to a book.

I didn't find any of the characters terribly sympathetic, but I enjoyed the debates about love and politics, religion and literature. Especially the literature. It's fun to listen to intellectuals, or even pseudo-intellectuals, expound on their theories. Just as when I read The Great Gatsby, I can't seem to put my finger on what I felt this book was about without reading it again, but I find myself thinking about Amory in an abstract form and comparing his ideas and experiences to my own. I look forward to revisiting him in the future in printed form rather than audio and taking a closer look at this work.

Andi ~ I recently bought a book of his short stories. I'll most likely read a few of those before I go for another novel of his. I like his writing a lot, but there is something about it that makes me lose track of the "story". Maybe it's supposed to be that way.

Short Works Read In 2009

This will include short stories, essays and poetry. I will mostly likely not post thoughts on every piece listed here, especially individual poems, but the ones I do write about will be linked. If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to ask! Every group of 10 short stories/essays will be counted as a single "book" in my final book count at the end of the year. However, none of these "books" will qualify for the initial 100 books in the 100+ Reading Challenge. I'm not yet sure how to count single poems. Let's see if I read enough of them to merit counting. If not, they're just good reading!

Short Stories:

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates (Read Online)"Hansel and Gretel" by The Brothers Grimm (Read Online)"A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka (Read Online)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

In an effort to clean things up and make room for the massive list of books I will read this year (if all these Challenges have anything to say about it!), this list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and my progress can now be found from the link on my sidebar under "Ongoing Reading Projects". Or just click here! :-)